IFRS 9: Mandatory effective date and disclosures

IFRS 9 Mandatory effective date and disclosures

About the project

On 16 December 2011 the IASB issued Mandatory Effective Date of IFRS 9 and Transition Disclosures, which amends IFRS 9 to require application for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2015, rather than 1 January 2013. Early application of IFRS 9 is still permitted. IFRS 9 is also amended so that it does not require the restatement of comparative-period financial statements for the initial application of the classification and measurement requirements of IFRS 9, but instead requires modified disclosures on transition to IFRS 9.

The issue of these amendments project resulted from the Board’s redeliberations on the Exposure Draft issued on 4 August 2011, which proposed to change the mandatory effective date of IFRS 9 so that entities would be required to apply it for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2015 rather than for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2013 as was required at the time. The Exposure Draft did not propose any changes to early application, so that early application would continue to be permitted. The comment period closed on 21 October 2011.

Subsequent to this project the IASB decided that a mandatory date of 1 January 2015 would not allow sufficient time for entities to prepare to apply the new Standard because the impairment phase of the IFRS 9 project has not yet been completed. Accordingly, the IASB decided that a new date should be decided upon when the entire IFRS 9 project is closer to completion. The amendments made to IFRS 9 in November 2013 remove the mandatory effective date from IFRS 9. However, entities may still choose to apply IFRS 9 immediately.

This project has now been completed. However, as part of the Limited Amendments to IFRS 9 project, on 24 July 2013 the IASB tentatively decided to defer the mandatory effective date of IFRS 9 and that the mandatory effective date should be left open pending the finalisation of the impairment and classification and measurement requirements. In February 2014, while finalising redeliberations on the impairment project and limited amendments to classification and measurement requirements for IFRS 9, the IASB tentatively decided to require an entity to apply IFRS 9 for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2018. For more information on that decision, please see the February 2014 IASB Update.

IFRS 9 remains available for early application. For information on the overall project to replace IAS 39, which has resulted in the issue of IFRS 9, please click here.

16 December 2011 The IASB issued the final amendments Mandatory Effective Date of IFRS 9 and Transition Disclosures (Amendments to IFRS 9 (2009), IFRS 9 (2010) and IFRS 7). Click here to read the press release for the issue of these amendments.

4 August 2011 The IASB published for public comment an Exposure Draft proposing to change the mandatory effective date of IFRS 9. Click hereto download the Exposure Draft.